Fix Her
by PrincessBryana
Summary: Shadow notices that his G.U.N partner is sick and feeling down, so leaving her in the care of a certain Guardian should be the perfect medicine. Oneshot. (Human Au)


The tall boy adorned with ebony curls around his head walked along the hallways of the G.U.N dormitory building that was right across his work place. Tiredly, he rubbed the sleep from his ruby eyes and yawned.

The night before, Shadow and Rouge were tasked to keep a look out in the city for a jewelery thief that has been active since last month, stealing from stores, graves, and museums. The pair were unsuccessful that night, and have been ordered to go at it again today.

_"Does the commander not understand the necessity for sleep?" _He thought. Irritated at the fact that he and Rouge had only three hours of sleep last night, and now were expected to be on their way at seven in the morning. A half hour from now.

Shadow reached his destination, and without bothering to knock on the creamy white door, he walked right in.

The room was dark, but rays of sunshine peeked through the curtains as dust particles lazy floated around the golden light. Shadow immediately strode over to open the two curtains in the room, letting the early morning sun brighten the room.

"Rouge," he said opening up the last window. "Wake up. The commander wants us to start right now."

He received no response.

"Rouge?" This time, Shadow faced the bed.

Her bed was unreasonably large for someone her size (Five Feet) and as odd as it was, Rouge always sleeps in the middle of the bed. She uses no pillows, only her thin blue blanket. When asked one time, Rouge simply told him that it was more comfortable.

_"Sleeping in the middle of a bed is not comfortable_..." He thought as he walked over and pulled the blanket away.

"Rouge, get up." Under the blue blanket was Rouge, curled up into a tiny ball, still sound asleep. Wearing only a white laced tank top and a matching under wear. Shadow could care less at the moment. Rouge was only this vulnerable around himself and Omega.

Rouge didn't wake up. It almost seemed like Shadow wasn't there to disturb her at all. He tried again.

"Rouge." He gently shook her shoulder. "Either you get up, or I'll drag you out. Your choice."

Shadow tried to not feel the least bit concerned when he noticed her skin was hot to the touch. And upon getting a closer look, he did notice her breathing was a bit ragged.

Shadow brushed a strand of hair away from her face and pressed his hand against her flushed cheek. Just as expected, she was burning up with a fever.

"And you were just fine yesterday..." He muttered to himself as he gently draped the blanket back over her shivering body. She was going to have to take the day off then.

Rouge must of suddenly felt the presence in the room when her eyes fluttered open to reveal shining turquoise pearls, lazily staring up at him. However, when her eyes landed on his ruby ones, Rouge quietly groaned and turned over to her other side, facing the wall. She closed her eyes again at an attempt to sleep.

"Go away..." She mumbled childishly. Shadow chuckled.

"I take it you're not feeling well?" He said crossing his arms as he sat on the bed.

"My head hurts..."

"I don't understand." He told her. "Just yesterday, you were up and about being energetic and annoying as usual, and now..." He looked at her as she reached over her nightstand and grabbed a tissue. Rouge blew into it noisily. He didn't see her face but he could tell she grimaced at the action.

"You're dying." He finished bluntly.

"Just leave me alone..." She mumbled.

The sound of her voice made Shadow finally move over to look at her. Rouge curled up even further into herself and her small beautiful face was crestfallen as her eyes remained downcast. It was like an invisible flick struck at Shadow's heart. It is rare to see her look this genually upset before.

Not only was she sick with a probable flu, but whatever was eating her up inside only added to the discomfort she was going through. Shadow has known Rouge for years. She was, in fact, the first to award herself with the title of Best Friend in Shadow's mind, Omega came second, then the others. And from the bottom of his heart, Shadow knew that something was wrong.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked her softly. The sudden comfort in his voice must of caught Rouge by surprise as she finally turned her head to look at him with her wide turquoise eyes. That, or she did want to talk about her problems.

_"This better not be something stupid."_ He thought when he began to randomly recount the top reasons Rouge ever grew upset. One time, Rouge came to work looking about ready to cry when she declared that she ran out of her favorite eyeshadow from the makeup palette she uses.

Shadow only hoped that he wouldn't waste his time over something silly this time...

**_Angel Island_**

Knuckles, as usual, sat atop of the Master Emerald shrine over looking Angel Island. Despite the sun shining brightly in the morning sky, an arctic wind always blows on the Island. Considering that it is just above the ocean.

The cool breeze gently blew through Knuckles' red waves of hair as he sat still with only one leg up, and the other dangling off the edge of the Altar. This was a normal routine for the red haired teen. Everyday, he would get up and stay on guard in protecting the Master Emerald from a certain beautiful thief he knew all too well.

Knuckles suddenly felt a spark of another living presence on the sacred Island.

_"Speak of the devil."_ He thought dully. Rouge always did come atleast once a week, either to annoy the living hell out of him or just attempt to take the Master Emerald.

Which only happened more than once.

Knuckles lazily shifted his violet eyes towards the descending stairs of the Altar and expected to find Rouge there, smiling flirtatiously like she usually does. It's not like he liked it or anything.

But to his surprise, Knuckles didn't see Rouge but someone else very familiar standing at the bottom of the steps. The curly haired teen wore dark jeans, and a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. And ready to work as always, topped it all off with a dark G.U.N bullet proof vest around his upper body.

Shaking the baffleness away, Knuckles stood up and strode down the steps to meet Shadow in a proper greeting. Upon getting closer, Knuckles did notice Shadow holding something in his arms. Whatever it was, it was a lot smaller than Shadow in body size and the object was wrapped around in a blue blanket.

Almost as if he were holding a child.

Or a body.

Knuckles shook off the silly notion and finally reached the bottom steps.

"Hey, Shadow," he said in greeting. "What brings you-"

"Let me cut to the chase." Interrupted Shadow. " I need you to take care of this for me." Shadow passed over the object into Knuckles' arms. It was light in his hold, but weighed enough to be a body...

He looked at Shadow skeptically. Then he chuckled.

"Look..." Knuckles began jokingly. "Angel Island doesn't make a good dumping area for a dead bodies."

"Yeah, I know." Shadow said simply. "I have a reserved area for that situation anyway."

Alarmed, Knuckles' eyes grew wide.

"What?"

"We're getting off topic here." Said Shadow dully as he looked down at his watch. "I need to get to work, I'm leaving you with Rouge by the way."

Curious, Knuckles shifted her entire body in one of his arms as he pulled the blanket back. It _was_ Rouge. Sound asleep with flushed cheeks. Knuckles furrowed his eyebrows together in sudden concern and looked at Shadow.

"What's wrong with her?"

"She's sick with the flu, I think. So I purposely gave her a larger dosage of medicine to get her better in no time."

"So you drugged her."

"She may have lost consciousness, but she's alive." Said Shadow in a somewhat reassuring tone. "She'll wake up in a couple of hours."

"So wait." Said Knuckles, gently bouncing Rouge in his arms to adjust her. "You just want me to watch her? That's it?"

"Actually..." Said the teen slowly, crossing his arms. "Rouge has been feeling a little down lately, over something ridiculous really." He said that last part rolling his ruby eyes.

Knuckles lifted an eyebrow.

"I know she's the happiest when she's with you," he continued. "I don't care what you do," Shadow pulled out a green chaos emerald. It shined in his hand. The ebony haired teen looked at Knuckles with his usual bored expression.

"Just fix her."

Knuckles didn't get to respond as Shadow chaos controlled away, leaving him alone with Rouge in his arms.

**o0o**

_"Just fix her..."_

That may be just one way of asking to cheer someone up. In Shadow's language anyway.

Being outside, Knuckles didn't want to lay Rouge on the solid ground, he would never hear the end of it if she woke up on the floor. Instead, He sat down on the top of the steps and settled her on his lap, holding her unconsciously close to his body. He sat there rigidly. After a couple of minutes, Knuckles finally looked down at Rouge.

With this being Rouge, it was amusing sight.

Rouge was always one to fuss about her cosmetics, usually demanding that she couldn't be looked upon until she put on makeup. Even in the middle of a mission, she would pull out a small mirror and re-apply.

But right now, Knuckles found no signs of eyeshadow, mascara, eyeliner, or whatever else she puts on her face. Just natural.

Her hair wasn't any better either. Rouge usually does a bunch different hairstyles for her short hair. She would mainly curl it or straighten it. No signs of that either. Most of her hair was straight, but only the tips of her ivory hair naturally curled.

With her peaceful face and lack of anything that defines Rouge in general, she could of been easily mistaken as a regular pretty girl. The way she just looks makes it seem-

Knuckles quickly looked away and refrained himself from almost calling her _adorable_. It didn't help realizing that he very much preffered her the way she was right now. Natural.

"Shadow will come back soon..." he chanted. "Shadow will come back soon..."

**o0o**

Two hours into his babysitting demeanor, Knuckles eventually got tired of sitting on the steps and decided to walk around the island, keeping Rouge close to him, not once stirring. She was either heavily drugged or just a heavy sleeper, but she didn't wake up. About ten minutes before hand, Knuckles was posting pictures of Rouge sleeping on his Instagram for fun. He'll hear an earful from her when she wakes up, but he didn't care.

After taking an hour walk around the huge island (And debated whether or not to just throw Rouge into a river) Knuckles finally decided to retreat back to the shrine and sit back down on the steps.

_"It's been three hours..."_

And Rouge was still asleep.

It surprised Knuckles knowing that he was able to hold her in his arm's for that amount of time. His strength came through today.

Knuckles looked back down at her sleeping face.

_"In fact," _he thought, content._ "I don't mind holding her longer-"_

His thought was interrupted when he felt a small hand patting his chest. Then his mouth, his face.

"Who kidnapped me...?" Rouge mumbled. Her eyes still remained closed.

"It's me."

"Alright, me, shut up..." she said slowly and groggy, as her hand went over his mouth. "I'm trying to sleep."

Knuckles chuckled softly and removed her hand from his mouth. While unconsciously not letting go.

"Shadow didn't want to leave you alone so he brought you here with me. He should be back in a bit."

Rouge finally opened her sleepy eyes and looked at her surroundings, and where she was laying. Rouge finally shifted her turquoise eyes up at Knuckles' purple ones. Instead of giving him one of her tantalizing looks and start a conversation off with a smart remark like usual, Rouge only closed her eyes and snuggled closer to his chest.

"Rouge."

No response. Knuckles furrowed his brows in confusion and called her out again. He began shaking his arms, trying to jostle her awake.

"_Rouge_."

This time, Knuckles brushed away her hair from her flushed face and flicked her forehead.

"Oww..." she whined and scrunched her face in annoyance.

"Come on. You've been asleep for the past three hours. My arms are hurting."

"Then a couple more won't hurt..." as small as she was, Rouge managed to turn to the side and snuggle even closer into his chest, curling herself further into his arms.

Attempting to ignore the heat rushing to his cheeks, Knuckles gently lifted her and sat her down next to him. Rouge sat still for a good three seconds.

Then she let herself fall sideways onto Knuckles' side.

Knuckles raised a brow and slowly turned his head to look down at her. But all he saw was the top of her ivory head on his shoulder. Knuckles only shrugged and let her be.

"So," he asked. "Shadow tells me you seem miserable. Wanna talk about it?"

"No." She mumbled.

"It might make you feel better."

"You'll laugh at me." She remarked in an adorable whine.

_"She is not adorable." _He thought bitterly. _"She's a pain in the-"_

"You know what?" She said, slowly detaching herself from him and sitting up on her own.

Knuckles couldn't help but notice the way she slightly swayed with her balance.

"I should probably go. Sorry to bother you, Knux."

His heart so suddenly ached.

Not only did it bother him that for once, Rouge didn't want to be with him. It also struck at him the way she said it. Rouge was extremely flirtatious and egotistical, she was always in the mood to joke around and be positive. This was nit his Rouge.

Her face remained downcast, her thin fingers feebly clutched on to the blanket around her.

Seeing her look this small and vunerable suddenly made Knuckles feel strongly protective of her.

"You're not bothering me." He said low and gently. The sudden warm tone surprised him.

A weak chuckle.

"Sure I'm not."

Knuckles watched as she attempted to stand up, blanket and all. She was moving slowly, and was having trouble. Either the action was her body aching, or she was too weak to support herself. Whatever it was, Knuckles grew concerned.

Rouge managed to get on her two feet, but like a baby learning to walk, Rouge nearly lost her balance and swayed back. Knuckles instinctively shot his arms out to catch her, but Rouge regained her balance again and stood straight. Or tried.

"You can barely stand," Said Knuckles, standing himself and placed his hand on the small of her back. "I don't think it's safe for you to fly back on your own."

"I can make it." She said bluntly as she began to slowly descend the shrine steps.

Knuckles was about to interject when he noticed Rouge letting go of the blanket around her body and brought her hands up to rub her head. The blanket landed on the floor. When Knuckles looked back up at Rouge-

"Rouge!"

His cheeks quickly matched a resemblance to his red hair as he quickly grabbed the blanket, jogged down the steps and swiftly wrapped the blanket around Rouge before picking her up and carrying her back on the top of the shrine.

"I said, I can make it." She said, seething at Knuckles, but he was glad that all signs of sadness and misery were gone as she became her old self at the moment. Knuckles looked down at her, displeased.

"Not looking like that you're not."

"I'm not naked." She scoffed.

"No, you're not," he set her down beside him again at the top of the shrine. "But I'm not letting you go anywhere in your underwear."

"I could care less, honestly."

He plopped down next to her. "That's what worries me." He muttered. When Knuckles didn't hear a snarky remark from Rouge, he shifted his body to face her. And the sight ached his heart again.

She was slumped forward, as if that short amount of time standing immediately drained her, which Knuckles was sure it did. He has never seen her so weak and low of energy, that he was having a hard time believing that this was actually Rouge. For some reason, seeing this side of her made Knuckles involuntarily kinder than he has ever been around her. She was clearly upset over something, which upset him as well. Maybe that might of been because she was just sick, no one is themselves when they're ill. Her head was currently down, though, Knuckles couldn't clearly see her face due to the curtain of white hair hiding it.

"Hey," He said softly, as his fingers gently brushed her hair away and tucked it behind her ear, to reveal her beautiful face, crestfallen. "What's the matter?"

"It's pretty dumb actually." She responded immediately, which Knuckles was not expecting. "It's just a boy..."

Protective instincts immediately kicked in within Knuckles' head as soon as the "B" word passed her lips. But, Knuckles knew that Rouge was _very _capable of handling herself when it came to boy trouble. Likely due to the fact that it was Rouge who was the one breaking hearts, never the other way around.

"Rouge," He began gently. "if somebody hurt you..."

At this, Rouge lifted her head up and faced him, giving him an adorable unimpressed expression that he secretly adored as she waited for him to finish. Unimpressed of his heroism maybe, she's no damsel in distress.

But Knuckles knew that.

"Then we'll find him and kick his ass together." He said, grinning.

That was obviously not the answer she was expecting, because it warmed Knuckles' heart when she burst into laughter.

"That's-" She giggled, "That's really sweet Knuckles. But that's not it, I swear."

He looked down her incredulously. "Then why are you so down?"

"It's just." A pause. "Remember the guy I was dating, Chase?"

"Uh huh." Not that he ever cared to admit it, but Knuckles _does _remember and pay attention to all the guys Rouge has dated. He was quick to discover that Rouge doesn't stay with them for no longer than a month or two. Like the new guy, Chase, she's only been with him for a few weeks. Knuckles figured that Chase was the kind of guy that took one glance at her form and automatically fell in love. Which irked Knuckles a bit. If a guy like Chase couldn't see the _real_ beauty beyond her figure, than he wasn't deserving of Rouge.

Though recently, Rouge has mentioned to Knuckles that the relationship with Chase wasn't working out (Likely because he would do more staring than talking to a rare beauty he's been blessed with.) and was eventually going to break it off.

"He broke up with me."

Knuckles blinked, bewildered at the sound of her pained voice. "Okay...Isn't that a good thing?"

"No!" Rouge looked up at him as if he had said something wrong. It wasn't wrong, was it?

"Rouge," he began, stunned at her vehemence as she slumped down and hid her face in her hands. He absentmindedly placed his large hand over her back in comfort. "I thought you didn't like him, Why are you so upset?"

"Don't you get it?" she ranted. "_He_ broke up _with me_. I mean, I know I was gonna break it off anyway, but it makes me feel so self conscious. _Is _there something wrong with me? I thought everyone liked me. But Chase breaking up with me first made me feel like I wasn't enough to begin with, like if I wasn't perfect."

"Well, you're not perfect." Knuckles stated simply and shrugged. "You are pretty bossy, annoying, egotistical..."

Despite the little pit of despair she was in, Rouge managed to pick her head up and gave the smirking boy a glare. "Gee, thanks for those words of encouragement." she said sarcastically.

"But..." Knuckles murmured lowly as he cupped her flushed cheek in his hand and titled her face up to look at him. "If that guy couldn't see past any of those already beautiful imperfections, then he wasn't the one. Simple as that."

Knuckles held her awestruck gaze there for a beat before moving his hand away.

Knuckles found an odd amusement in her expression before she immediately brushed it off and changed it to an unfazed one.

"Smooth." She pouted and crossed her arms. "Bet you can't name one thing you like about me, though."

_"So many things..." _He wanted to say automatically. But in all honesty, how could he choose just one? There are so many beautiful things about Rouge, that it was tough picking out his favorite thing about her.

"I like it when you look at me."

She snorted. "How narcissistic of you."

"No," he clarified simply. "I just love looking at your eyes."

Rouge's expression went from surprised, to embarrassed, and then it mixed into something of anger and bashful as she looked away. Knuckles watched her curiously. It makes sense to blush when one is being complimented, but why was she so angry?

Knuckles recognizes Rouge for being the flirtatious and confident one within their group of friends, so seeing her like this was kinda odd. You never see Rouge get caught off guard with words, that was _her _specialty. It was almost as if she doesn't know how to take compliment that pertains to her looks-

...

Oh.

"Wait..." he began, the gears in his head turning at the realization. "Do you...not like it when people flirt with _you_?"

Her silence was his answer.

"Oh my god." he blurted in disbelief, then immediately grinned. "That's so cute!"

The bait worked when Rouge furrowed her brows in anger as her face got redder in embarrassment. "No it's not."

"Yes it is!" he gushed even further, poking her side. "It's so adorable! I should start flirting with you more often."

"No!" She growled, hiding her reddening face in her hands. "It's _my _job to be the flirt. Not you, you big Knucklehead!"

"Oh yeah?" he teased, bending down to her face, noses nearly touching. "Well now it's my turn."

Rouge stood her ground and refrained from moving her face away, so she just sat there and stared him down. Knuckles mirrored her stubbornness for a moment before he bit his lip in a playful smirk and quickly planted a peck on her lips.

Surely Rouge has mastered the art of dazing her opponents by gracing them with a single kiss. This was never done the other way around, Knuckles realized.

Just as soon as he had caught his target, Rouge reeled away while her hand flew up to her mouth in shock. Her eyes were shining as she stared up at Knuckles silently. Knuckles, on the other hand, blushed as well but sat there unfazed by his sudden bravery. He only continued to hold her eyes with his own, smiling in contentment.

"Looks like I was the one to break you, huh?" He said, breaking the silence, grinning. "You always did say that you wanted to kiss me so badly, but now you're just...speechless..."

Knuckles' smile and words slowly began to fade when he noticed Rouge's face begin to deflate again in sadness. She slowly moved her arms up to embrace herself, and moved her gaze downcast again.

"Ah, geez," Knuckles murmured, regretting his little tease as he nervously scratched the back of his head. "You're really sensitive today, aren't you? I know it wasn't a _real_ kiss, but, did you not like it?"

"It's just..." she mumbled, hesitantly. Though, Knuckles was eager to listen.

"It's just...?" He echoed.

Rouge hesitated for a few beats, before sighing as she finally confessed shyly.

"I wanted to do it first."

After carrying her in his arms for hours, after having her snuggle into his chest to fall back asleep in, after she had leaned against him for comfort, and after all of those teases, this was the breaking point.

For the first time today, his heart began to flutter wildly in his chest.

Knuckles hoped his face wasn't too flushed in red as he swallowed thickly, nearly choking on his saliva. But, just as quickly as it had come, Knuckles managed to breathe and keep his calm composure, and hoped that Rouge hadn't noticed him fall apart.

"Well-" He cleared his throat, his voice coming out softly again. "Wanna try it again?"

Rouge sat up straight and turned to face him, her expression bordering between embarrassment and confusion. Which Knuckles adored.

"Huh?" she squeaked.

Knuckles opened his arms for her. "Come here." he offered gently. "You can try first this ti-_mph-_"

He was immediately cut off by a pair of plump lips that he had admittedly been staring at the _whole_ day.

Before he was able to finish speaking, Rouge had automatically jumped into his opened arms in an invitation that she must of been waiting for, as she crashed her lips onto his, shutting him up.

Though it took him by surprise, Knuckles wasted no time to instinctively envelop his arms around her petite form and melt into the kiss. His hands had begun to feverishly run across her body, fingers entangled her hair while his warm palm was splayed over the small of her back, bringing her closer.

Knuckles had just shivered from the tease of her fingers snaking around his neck and running through his hair when Rouge suddenly pulled away, much to his disappointment.

"You're..." She breathed, her gorgeous eyes wild and her lip trembling. "You're gonna get sick."

Though Knuckles was panting, be let out a breathy chuckle. "Too late." he said before locking lips again.

**_Two Days Later_**

So Shadow's idea of overdose really did do the the trick, because the next day, Rouge felt immediately better, and not just from the sickness.

But over dosing on any medication is no joke, please don't do it.

The one day she had spent with Knuckles had releaved her of the heartache, and then later realized exactly how dumb the situation really was, but Knuckles still took the time to deal with her. And because he took the time to _heal _her as well, it countered and got himself sick as predicted.

Rouge reached her destination as she gracefully descended upon the top of the shrine of Angel Island. She then begrudgingly ignored the shiny Master Emerald and continued to head down the steps, and walked around to the side of the shrine. There, she found a trapped door hidden behind a bush.

_"So this is where he lives_._" _She thought curiously, as she reached down to open it. Inside, she walked down some stairs to be greeted by a surprisingly spacious underground home. She had walked into a living room, there, she had found a large lump underneath a blanket on the couch.

Rouge lost all sense of respect as she mischievously sprinted across the living room and _jumped _on the couch, landing harshly on the lump. The lump itself recoiled in a seemingly fetal position as it groaned in pain, however, Rouge giggled.

"Ohhh," she crooned. "Is the poor baby sick today?"

"Mmm..."

"I would say _I told you so,_" she said, pulling the blanket back, to reveal a drowsy red head. "But you get the idea."

"You..." he grumbled, refusing to open his eyes. "Kissed me..."

Rouge splayed herself over Knuckles and reached over to play with his hair. "Yeah, right after you kissed my lips first."

Knuckles groaned in a slight hint of annoyance as he pulled the blanket back over his face.

"If you're going to tease, then go away." he muttered from underneath the blanket.

Rouge pouted. "Fine." she huffed, before sliding off from Knuckles and planted her feet on the floor. Rouge took one step forward before a warm hand shot out from the blanket as it caught her hand.

"Wait." she heard him say as Rouge looked back to see Knuckles drawing the blanket away, half awake. "I'm kidding."

Knuckles then yanked Rouge down with him so that she lay on the couch. Rouge had no time to protest before Knuckles draped a heavy arm over her body, trapping her there.

"Shut up and go to sleep." he said into her hair groggily before falling asleep in seconds.

Rouge layed there, stunned as a strong blush slowly rose to her cheeks, the feel of Knuckles' broad and fevered chest against her back didn't help either.

Despite the overwhelming affection, Rouge wasted no time to get comfortable and closed her eyes.


End file.
